


A Year of Firsts

by lar_laughs



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: fandomaid, M/M, Post Series, back on earth, making a house a home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:35:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evan and David settle in to their first home together.  Their first year is full of new things and new experiences, a few of which are written here for your perusal.</p>
<p>This is written for clwilson2006 in appreciation of her donation to the Fandomaid :: Hurricane Sandy auction.  She has been nothing but kind as I tried out a new pairing.</p>
<p>Also, I have nothing but hugs and good thoughts for fififolle, who was the greatest help to me in the creation of this story.  Everything good is because of her.  Anything I messed up is all on my head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Year of Firsts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clwilson2006](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clwilson2006/gifts).



**First Kiss**  
The most perfect thing about the apartment was the view over the city but Evan was cursing it as he lugged yet another box up the three flights of stairs. Never had he been so grateful for friends with muscles because he knew he couldn't have possibly moved all the boxes by himself, not to mention the few pieces of furniture that both he and David had collected over the years.

It was nice to have the non-muscled friends, he had to admit as he stumbled through the front door to find the main room a hive of activity. Otherwise, he would have had to help unpack and organize, two things he wasn't capable of wrapping his head around at the moment. When he’d had a proper amount of time to sleep, shower and eat something more than the rapidly cooling pizza someone had brought over, he was going to rearrange until everything was, once again, to his standards, but right now he knew he couldn't do both.

“Whose rock collection did I just bring up?” Cadman asked as she stared down at a box marked _Rock Collection - 2003 - Box 1_ in perfectly square letters. Evan couldn't resist walking over to see which box she had been unfortunate enough to be saddled with on the trip up.

“Ah,” he laughed, more out of relief that he didn't have to take care of the boxes he’d been sidestepping all morning. “That would be David’s collection of granite from Ecuador.”

“Granite?” The look on Cadman’s face was priceless as she looked up and saw Evan’s smirk. Her own glare was enough to send him back to where he'd set down his box, well away from her long reach if she decided to make her irritation physical.

“From Ecuador,” Evan confirmed. “His first love is botany but he’s got a thing for rocks. If I were you, I’d stay away from boxes four and five of the same category. They're also pretty heavy.”

Her hands clutching at her lower back, Cadman nodded rather stiffly. “Roger that. Jason gets the rock collection boxes.”

“Jason gets the what?” came the booming reply as the man in question arrived with three boxes stacked in his muscled arms. As he sat them on the floor with a loud thump that made Evan cringe at the thought that something important might not want to be rattled, Jason crossed his arms and stared at the other two, his eyes narrowed in such a way that boded ill for anyone that further angered him.

As always, Cadman diffused the anger with a quick grin. “First in line for the whirlpool tub when we get done here. Promise. Cross my heart and the whole nine yards.”

Jason grunted but let himself be ushered back out the door for the next round of boxes. Evan moved to follow them but stopped. He hadn't seen David in at least an hour. When they were on Atlantis, they went days without seeing each other but Evan didn't want their life to be like that here. He had the power to see David whenever he wanted. It was a heady rush to think that he could track him down and give him a toe-curling kiss before he went back to lugging boxes up the stairs.

The only problem was that he had no idea where David might be. Right took him to kitchen (not a place he expected to ever find David), the room designated as his art studio, and the stairs that led to the rooftop greenhouse that was David’s sanctuary and, not unexpectedly, the real reason they'd bought this place. Left was the minuscule guest bedroom and the gigantic master suite. Straight ahead, across the decent-sized living room, were the french doors leading out to the wide, wooden deck that looked out over the city.

As if he knew his presence was needed, David came through the front door. “Laura told me I’d find you here.”

“Did you need me for anything?”

David’s wide smile made Evan melt. Suddenly, asking for help to move all their stuff seemed like a bad idea as the house was full of entirely too many people for what he wanted to be doing at the moment. “Did you need me for anything?” Evan stuttered out, wishing for the one thing he probably couldn’t get at the moment.

The answer was the second best thing that could happen. David nodded as he walked closer, their eyes locking. “I always need you,” he whispered as he moved in for a kiss. If Evan thought it was going to be a quick one, he was in for a surprise as David’s fingers threaded through the hair at the nape of his neck, holding him still as David closed the gap completely.

A part of Evan was keenly aware that there were people nearby. It was still hard to allow himself to be kissed in what was, for the time being, a public place. His new reality, of being able to love whomever he wanted, wherever he wanted, still seemed like a dream. It didn’t matter who came upon them now. Not only was this their own home but they were both in a situation to let this happen. DADT was now firmly in the past but that didn’t mean that Evan didn’t sometimes forget about it and hold himself a little more aloof.

Thankfully, the other part of Evan wanted and needed this kiss more than the chance to contemplate politics and group dynamics for the thousandth time. He let himself fall into David’s embrace, returning it with his own body so that when they finally broke free, they were firmly entangled.

“Our first kiss in our new home,” Evan declared, the slightest bit out of breath.

David only shook his head. As he stepped out of Evan’s embrace, his grin widened. “That wasn't a kiss, dearest. That was a promise.”

“Of what?” Evan started after his lover but paused a second too long as Laura and Jason walked into the room, arguing over who had done the lion’s share of the work so far. When his attention zeroed back on David, he was walking in the direction of the staircase up to the greenhouse. “Of what?” Evan asked again, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“For later,” David called out.

Laura started to cackle with glee but shut up quickly enough when Evan threw a pillow, hitting her dead center in the chest. “Back to work,” he ordered in his best _I May Not Be Your CO But You Still Better Hop To It_ voice, but his own silly grin ruined the whole effect. He knew the others saw it but they wisely turned around and went back to their assigned tasks.

**First Breakfast in Bed**  
Evan had the hardest time adjusting to the timing of their new life. He woke up far too early every morning, the silence of the house causing his heart to pound in anticipation of trouble. No one had ever thought to tell him that the nightmares that sometimes woke him would be eclipsed by the fact that he could no longer sleep in a quiet place. It was far too unnerving.

On the other hand, David was a night owl and worked far past the stroke of midnight so that he normally awoke at what some people might consider a proper time. Their sleeping habits couldn't be more different and yet, still quite similar. They were awake for much of the same hours of daylight which was all that mattered, in Evan’s book.

No matter when he woke up, Evan always tried to be around to hand David his first cup of coffee and a plate of something that resembled breakfast foods. While David, only a few more pieces of burned toast away from being on the local fire department’s Customer Of the Year list, could forage for his own lunch, Evan tried to make sure that his day was bracketed with something good to eat.

It was hard to be spontaneous with such divergent schedules but Evan woke up one morning knowing that this was to be the day that he finally pulled off his first big surprise of this relationship. So far, all the really big surprises went to David but this would be the first one he orchestrated. The first surprise, he noted with glee, of this year of firsts.

Evan walked out of the guest bathroom, the one he’s more or less taken over so as not to wake up David on these early mornings, only to find that his surprise was well on its way to being derailed. For the first time ever in their acquaintance, David was standing in the middle of the kitchen. Wide awake. Before the sun.

This stopped Evan in his tracks and he even did a double take into the darkened bedroom to make sure that he wasn’t looking at some sort of apparition. There was no one under the rumpled bed clothes so this was the real David. It just wasn't the _real _David if he was in the kitchen.__

__“Did I wake up in an alternate dimension?” he asked in the quietest voice he could produce and still be heard over the distance. In his past experience, aliens sometimes inhabited the bodies of people he knew and they weren’t fond of being surprised. His right hand ached for his gun right now, spasming against his thigh in a vain attempt for the comfort that only his weapon could provide._ _

__David’s laugh was clipped as he turned around, his hands held up high in a gesture of peace as he caught wind of Evan’s turn of attitude. “Sorry. I heard you wake up and thought I’d get up with you. I thought it would be a nice change of pace.”_ _

__“You never wake up this early and you _never_ wake up this coherent.”_ _

__The dull blush spreading over David’s cheeks was endearing but it also served to convince Evan that this wasn’t the alien conspiracy he was always on the lookout for, no matter that the IOA had assured them that the gate was closed off for good. As Evan crossed to the kitchen, he saw all the little signs he’d previously missed. David was wearing the same t-shirt and track pants he’d worn yesterday, both a little worse for wear but clean. His hair wasn’t sticking up on one side like it did after he slept, but was instead sticking up all over like when he was having difficulty with his work._ _

__“Did you actually sleep?” Evan finally asked as he cupped David’s cheek, tilting his head up to get a better look at the dark circles under his eyes. When David shook his head, Evan touched his forehead to David’s. “You need to sleep. That was our deal.”_ _

__“The _nevadensis_ isn’t acting like it should. I was worried.”_ _

__Evan shook his head. “Not good enough to keep you up all night. Take a couple of hours, at the very least.” When David started to protest again, Evan shook him. Not hard but just enough so that his attention was drawn away from the situation upstairs once again. “At the very least.”_ _

__“At the very least,” he agreed, further indication that he needed sleep because an awake David wouldn’t have let anything keep him from a plant in need. Then he turned those liquid-dark eyes on Evan, a sure way to get anything he wanted. “Come with me?”_ _

__Normally, he would have been out on his run by now, keeping a steady tempo through city streets just starting to come awake. It was the way he’d discovered of connecting with his surroundings so that this felt more and more like home every day. A missed day of running wasn’t going to kill him, though, so he nodded._ _

__He’d only planned on staying in bed until David fell asleep but ended up being so warm and comfortable that he decided to close his eyes for a small snap. Even when he woke up nearly an hour later, he still didn’t want to move. This bed had been the matter of much discussion and countless visits to the showroom but it had all been worth it because there was no other piece of furniture as comfortable. Except, in a pinch, the chair in the corner of Evan’s studio but that was meant for short naps and not long hours in a darkened room. Instead of getting up and going on with his day, he decided to curl back up against David’s side and listen to him breathe._ _

__Three hours later, he watched David’s eyes flutter open. The bruises under his eyes were still evident in the dull light of the room but they weren’t quite so dark. “Morning, sunshine.”_ _

__“What are... what?” His eyes glazed with a sudden disorientation, much the same as Evan’s must have earlier._ _

__“Sorry. Things got a little out of synch this morning. You invited me back to bed. I came.”_ _

__A murmur of reminder and a stretch of his arms over his head later, David hooked an arm around Evan so that they tumbled into a heap together. “I like surprises like this,” he whispered as he kissed his way up Evan’s throat._ _

__“You surprised me this morning, as well. I’d thought about trying to make you some breakfast in bed. Kind of hard to do when you got up before I’d planned on.”_ _

__“Breakfast in bed?” David’s face melted into a puddley sort of happy smile. “The only time I’ve ever had breakfast in bed with you was that one time you had those protein bars in your pocket when we got stranded in the place with all the snow.”_ _

__“Our first date,” Evan responded with a smile as he remembered the exact moment when he’d realized that David was the one he wanted to stay with forever. That forever had seemed, for a time, as if it was going to be the length of time that the cold would take to kill them. It was the most content he’d ever been to die._ _

__David let Evan untangle himself but, suddenly free, Evan wasn’t sure he wanted to be free. It was only David’s excited, “Will there be pancakes?” that kept him on his original course. Yes, there would be pancakes. If it made David’s eyes sparkle with life, regardless of the dark circles, he would make pancakes every day._ _

__**First Guest**  
Four months in and things were going smoothly. Almost too smoothly, Evan thought later, after he set his cell phone down on the counter after getting the phone call he’d been waiting for since turning on the news four days ago. Nothing in life was for certain, a lesson that was driven home by the hurricane that ravaged the Eastern seaboard and left people they knew and loved without power and, in a few instances, without homes._ _

__“You’ve done too much,” Laura murmured when Evan met her at the airport and pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. “I can stay-”_ _

__“Where? No, you’re staying with David and I until you can get back on your feet. We wouldn’t hear of you staying anywhere else,” Evan demanded, his voice still harboring a quiver that made him wish there was someone to blame for the weather that had taken everything from his friend. He wanted to punch someone, drag them to the ground so he could trade pain for pain. Instead, he hugged her close to his side as they wandered over to the baggage area._ _

__Neither of them spoke for a really long time. It wasn’t until the warning began blaring so that everyone knew to clear off the conveyor belt that she drew in the first breath he thought he’d heard her take. It was as full of tears as any he’d ever heard from Laura. She was the toughest of all the Marines he’d served with. The things they had to deal with while on Atlantis would have cowed anyone else but the danger and intrigue seemed to bring out a glow on Laura’s cheeks._ _

__Now, those same cheeks were pale and drawn with exhaustion. He could only imagine what she’d been through since being evacuated from her apartment on the beach only to discover, three hours later, that the structure that had contained all her earthly possessions no longer existed. It would have destroyed a normal person. It was trying to destroy Laura._ _

__When she drew another stuttering breath, he couldn’t bear it any longer. “You can stay with us as long as you need to,” he blurted out, without thinking through what help he was promising or what David might think of it. He only knew the panic he’d felt when he realized that the storm was going to affect her for a certainty instead of just a maybe. Not a might but a will._ _

__“Jason said I could stay with him but...” When it became clear that she wasn’t going to continue that sentence, Evan pulled her over for a kiss on top of her head._ _

__“You’re staying with us. No more arguments. Jason lives with his mother. You’re not staying with Mrs. Markham and _that_ is an order.”_ _

__It was enough to make her smile. Nothing as wide or as bright as he was used to seeing from her but it was enough to lift his spirits so that getting her small bag, full of hand-me-downs from the women’s shelter where she’d stayed until he’d convinced her to get on the plane, didn’t send either of them spiraling into despair._ _

__Being greeted by a line of fire trucks and ambulances on the street in front of the apartment was enough to send him into a full blown panic attack. His jeep slid to a halt with only an inch or two to spare but he was already unbuckling the seat belt and launching himself out of the driver’s seat._ _

___Today, of all days, is the one day that David decides to burn down the building._ The thought played over and over in his mind even though he noticed that there was nothing wrong with the building he called home. No plumes of smoke marred the blue sky. Still, when he saw David surrounded by some firemen, he couldn’t stop from shouting his name._ _

__“I’m okay,” David murmured after being wrapped in Evan’s tight embrace for several long seconds. “It wasn’t me. They aren’t here for me.”_ _

__Other details started to make their way into Evan’s subconscious. Several small children from the building next to theirs were being coaxed into keeping too-large oxygen masks on their faces when they clearly didn’t want anything to do with the paramedics intent on helping them. Their mother struggled in the grasp of several more paramedics, her worry for her children overriding her obvious need of assistance_ _

__One of the firemen thumped Evan on the shoulder but he was too distracted to put a name with the face. “Your boy’s a hero, Lorne. Kept a clear head and called us at the first sign of trouble. Guess he knows what a house on fire smells like after all the near-misses he’s had with the toaster.”_ _

__“It wasn’t me. They aren’t here for me,” David continued to murmur until Evan’s hold became less frantic and more reassuring. He peaked over Evan’s shoulder. “Hey, Laura. Good flight?”_ _

__“Not the best I’ve ever had but they gave me extra peanuts. How’s things here when you aren’t playing with firemen?”_ _

__“Good.” With a little pressure, he was able to extract himself from Evan completely. “I was thinking we’d cook something-”_ _

__“I’d cook something,” Evan interrupted, his voice harsh with strain._ _

__“I was thinking that Evan would cook something on the grill.” David allowed the interruption but he rolled his eyes in a way that told everyone nearby that he loved the guy but sometimes he got irritated by him, just the tiniest bit. The hand he kept wrapped around Evan’s arm served as both an anchor and a reminder that David understood Evan’s concern. “But maybe we’ll go out for dinner, instead.”_ _

__“Sounds good to me. I don’t want to be a bother.”_ _

__“With all the excitement we have around here,” David indicated the street with a sweep of his hand, “You’ll hardly be any trouble at all.”_ _

__**First Apology** _ _

__“I know you’re enjoying being a stay-at-home, well, whatever you are, but I could really use you on this.” Anne Teldy blew on the top of her takeout coffee cup as if cooling off the plastic was going to make the liquid inside a different temperature. They’d met at the hole in the wall that Evan often frequented after his morning runs, hoping for the privacy, but had ended up taking their drinks to go when the shop filled up with unexpected early morning risers. Now they were sitting on a bench outside a string of small shops that had yet to open, their only interruption the birds that came looking for handouts._ _

__Evan fidgeted with his cup, trying to buy some time as he reasoned out his argument. He’d gone up against Teldy before, most often in work situations but also during leisure hours. Her team was still working together as a well-paid private security consulting group. Last he’d heard through the grapevine, they were pulling in large amounts of money with relative ease._ _

__While it was a stretch to say he’d enjoyed his years in the military, Evan knew that Anne and Dusty were well-suited for the life in a way that he never would be. He, on the other hand, was enjoying his retirement. Not that he wasn’t intrigued by Anne’s plea. Or, possibly, he was enjoying being asked._ _

__“I told David-”_ _

__“You know I wouldn’t ask if I had any other choice, Lorne. Just... consider it. Alright? Talk it over with David. You have my phone number”_ _

__Before he could say anything else, she was throwing away her cup as she walked off down the street. Evan stared after her, his mind full of so much information he wasn’t sure how to process it all. He finished his coffee but still sat staring into the distance, trying to figure out what it was that he wanted to do. Until he figured that out, it was useless going to David with the information._ _

__When he finally did throw his cup away, he felt a little lighter as he realized that he knew what he was going to say. He would wait until tonight to text her back with his answer. They would have to find their own dressed up mannequin for this mission._ _

__Twenty-four hours later, give or take a few minutes, Evan realized his mistake when David flung the front door open and refused to let him enter the house. “When were you going to tell me?”_ _

__“Tell you what?” Since David’s birthday was just around the corner, he was currently keeping a lot of secrets but those were to be expected. This clearly sounded like something that he should have told and didn’t._ _

__The confused expression on his face as he pieced through the options wasn’t doing a lot to calm David’s anger. His hurt expression tore at Evan’s heart, as if he was the school yard bully that had taken one too many pot shots at the skinny, floppy-haired boy in the corner._ _

__Something in his eyes shifted, as if he thought he was being actively lied to instead of just kept out of the loop. His voice was even and calm, not a good sign at all. “Dusty called, looking for you. She said it was about the job and wanted to know if you still had that tux. When were you going to tell me you were working with them? That’s something that I thought we said we would talk about. You can’t just agree to work with them and not tell me. It’s like-”_ _

__Evan framed David’s face with his hands. “I turned Anne down. She offered the position and told me to talk to you but I didn’t give it much of a thought. Not enough to even bring up to you. I’m sorry for that, David. I should have told you they offered it to me. After I told her no, I didn’t give it much of a thought. I was their first thought because I have a tux readily available to me.”_ _

__A flicker of confusion crossed through David’s eyes, hitting on so many levels that Evan wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t express himself for several minutes. “I shouldn’t have immediately run to that conclusion,” he offered up as his own apology as all the fight immediately drained out of him. “I figured, if you already had the tux that you must have said yes and were starting to piece together your gear. Because,” and this took a little more thought on his part as he turned the information over and over in his mind, “you don’t have a tuxedo. I know your closet as well as my own.”_ _

__Evan kissed the side of his mouth where the frown was pulling it down. He placed a kiss on the tip of his nose and another on his forehead. “You have a birthday coming up.”_ _

__“But-”_ _

__“And my tux isn’t in the closet because it’s still getting alterations. At this moment, it’s hanging right next to yours.”_ _

__“Does that mean?” David asked, his voice trailing off as his eyes lit up with excitement._ _

__It was useless to keep the secret from him now but that would definitely make the tailor happy as he wouldn’t have to guess on any of the seams. Evan nodded, leaning in to trace his lips along David’s lower lip. “That’s right. I’m taking my best guy out on the town. You’re finally going to get your wish. You and I are going dancing.”_ _

__**First Picnic Under the Stars**  
The city, in winter, was a miserably cold place. There was no snow to speak of but there were ice storms that buffeted up from the ocean nearly once every week. Evan, instead of going for a run through city streets that had become treacherous, bought a treadmill that made a racket as he pretended he was going up and down his familiar streets. It wasn’t the same and he found himself in a constant state of irritation that made itself known in his painting, if not also in the way he suddenly kept house. Everything was kept in place with a military precision that he hadn’t otherwise been so intent on._ _

__At first, he thought he was doing a good job of keeping his cabin fever from David. As the weeks went on and his gray mood began to linger, he began to forget what it felt like to be happy. Whenever David tried to engage him in conversation, he nodded along but was seldom able to work up the energy to say anything back. It was a piss poor way to handle his half of the relationship but he’d fallen too deep into the seasonal depression to back out now._ _

__Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, David started altering his daily routine. It was little things at first but, gradually, Evan realized he was being watched over, as if he might do something stupid at any moment. He tensed every time David started talking, wondering if this would be the time when David finally asked, “Are you okay?”_ _

__But the words never came. Instead, one night, David stopped Evan from walking into the kitchen to start making dinner. “I’m making dinner tonight.”_ _

__It was so matter-of-fact that Evan almost started to laugh, thinking it was a joke. When David frowned, his forehead wrinkling in the most becoming way, Evan felt bad that he’d obviously missed something. Instead of saying the wrong thing at a time when he wasn’t sure he had the energy to come up with a proper apology, he said, “I’m fine,” answering the unasked question that had been hovering in the air._ _

__“I’m making dinner tonight,” David answered once again, his voice quivering just the slightest bit._ _

__Instead of arguing, Evan stepped back and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “You want me to go get my coat?” Normally, when David made dinner, it had something to do with reservations._ _

__“No. But you can go get into those cut-offs that I like.”_ _

__It took Evan a moment to realize that David was flirting with him. It was hidden behind the unease that David clearly still felt with the situation but he was making a valiant attempt at moving past it._ _

__With a sudden burst of clarity, a memory popped into Evan’s mind. He was suddenly seeing David as he’d been very early on in their relationship. Dating someone from the military side of the Atlantis expedition was definitely not something that David was prepared for and they’d run into a problem with communication. Instead of backing down from the problem as all of David’s friends thought he would, the scientist had been alarmingly forthright and spoken his mind even when it meant standing up to an irritated and sleep-deprived Evan._ _

__It had been a situation not unlike this one. Once again, David was standing up for something that he felt was important. The last time, they’d ended up taking a two-day vacation to a deserted portion of beach and hashing everything out. Evan, if he remembered it all correctly, had worn a pair of cut-off jeans that had been so old and soft, they’d clung to him like a second skin._ _

__“Go get dressed and meet me upstairs,” David said, his voice gentle as he saw the sudden dawning in Evan’s expression. “I’m giving you ten minutes.”_ _

__It took him two minutes to get dressed because the outfit was already laid out for him on the bed and there wasn’t much to it. The skies were clear which meant that there wasn’t any rain or sleet but that certainly meant it was cold outside and while it didn’t sound like they were going to be headed out, Evan felt a little naked with so few clothes on during the winter months._ _

__In the eight minutes that remained, he sat down on the bed, put his head in his hands, and tried to find the strength to be a good person._ _

__At ten minutes exactly, he hit the top step of the stairs that led up to the greenhouse. The hot, moist air felt good against his exposed skin but still he shivered as he acclimated. He wasn’t sure how David was able to go from this extreme to the cooler temperature they kept the rest of the apartment set at._ _

__“Come all the way back,” David called from deeper in the room, a wall of living green plants obscuring him from view. Since this was, more or less, David’s sanctuary, Evan didn’t come up here much but he knew his way around. Even still, he found himself admiring all the different plants and the newest additions as he walked through the room._ _

__Clear glass framed two windows and most of the ceiling so that, toward this furthermost corner, it felt like living in a glass house. The view of the ocean wasn’t quite as good from this vantage point as it was from the deck but it looked out over more of the greener parts of the city. David called it his _Castle in the Clouds_ and rightly so._ _

__Tonight, most of the work benches and plastic mats had been moved away and a blanket had been laid out over the wooden floor panels. Different plants had been set around so that the overall feel was that he had stepped out of his house and into a park. The scene was made all the more complete by a wicker picnic basket set off to the side and a bottle of wine chilling in a bucket beside two wine glasses._ _

__Evan looked over at the man who appeared at his side, dressed in his own casual shorts and faded polo shirt. “What made you decide to do this?”_ _

__A frown tugged at David’s mouth as he worked through all the different answers he could give. For good measure, Evan tried to be reassuring once again. “I’m fine.”_ _

__“No, you aren’t. You’re in a bad spot. Laura told me about these.”_ _

__“Laura?” he asked, suddenly wondering how often he’d only thought he’d kept his bad moods to himself. “What did Laura have to say about this?”_ _

__“She said you needed some sun and some wine and a general reminder that life was good. I don’t have the sun but I have something just as good.” David indicated the row of lights he used with the plants. They’d been moved so they were right behind some of the larger trees, almost as if the vegetation was holding back the sun. “And if that doesn’t work,” he pointed up toward the skylight, “I’ve got it on good authority there’ll be a good amount of stars tonight. Nothing better than stars to remind you that life is good.”_ _

__“No.” The word came out before he could stop it. From the way that David’s face fell, he realized it had been far harsher than he had intended it to be._ _

__“It’s worth a shot, don’t you think?”_ _

__Evan bit his lip to keep from saying something else that he didn’t intend to, thus ruining this beautiful scene even more than he already was. Instead of speaking, he fell to his knees. When David started toward him, concerned, Evan grasped him around the waist, resting his head against David’s abdomen._ _

__“I meant,” he whispered, “that I don’t need stars to remind me that life is good. Sometimes I just need to be reminded that I have everything. I’m a bastard, David. I let myself get too low.”_ _

__David began carding his hands through Evan’s longer hair, one of the good things about leaving the military. With each touch, he felt his spirits lift. Not a complete turn around, no. Just knowing that someone else was sharing the burden with him was more of a help than he’d ever realized before._ _

__“Dinner?” David asked after Evan’s breathing evened out. “It’s from Sargeant’s. Your favorite.”_ _

__“A picnic under the stars.” Evan let himself be led to the blanket. “You do make the best dinners.”_ _

__**First Anniversary**  
David stood in the middle of the living room, his face set in a rather perplexed expression as if he was missing something that he couldn’t find. Since it seemed mean not to help him out, Evan lowered the newspaper. “Do you need help with anything?”_ _

__“What day is it?” David asked in complete seriousness._ _

__“Day of the week or date?”_ _

__“Date.”_ _

__Evan had to consult his wristwatch to make sure he was remembering correctly. “The fifteenth. Why?”_ _

__Just as suddenly as the sun pushing away the storm clouds, David’s smile eclipsed his frown. “Do you know what that means? We’ve been in this house exactly a year.”_ _

__“A year? It feels like... more time should have gone by. But it doesn’t feel like enough has gone by for it to be a year.” Evan blushed as he realized what an idiot he must sound like. “That made no sense.”_ _

__“It does.” Even though the chair was only made to fit one person, David let himself fall back into Evan’s lap. The newspaper complained as it rumpled and tore, caught between the two of them, but neither man cared as they shared a kiss. “We should celebrate.”_ _

__Evan let out a deep sigh as David fit himself into the crook of his neck. He would be perfectly fine staying like this forever. “It feels like all we’ve done is celebrate. We’ve had one happy occurrence after another. Still glad we moved here?”_ _

__“Everyday, I’m amazed at my good luck.”_ _

__“At finding this place? We did get a great deal on it.”_ _

__David’s laugh was like little ripples of pleasure along Evan’s skin as he fit himself even more securely against him. “No. I’m amazed at my good luck in finding you.”_ _

__“Of all the gin joints, in all the world, you had to walk into mine.” Evan purposefully misquoted one of their favorite movies, a shared memory between the two of them. “And it wasn’t luck. It was destiny. Definitely destiny.”_ _

__As David murmured the same words against the skin of his throat, Evan closed his eyes and sent up a wish that whatever hand moved destiny would give them many more years of firsts to come._ _


End file.
